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Two rather different approaches are used for handling a thesaurus as a printed document and for using one as an adjunct to a database management system. This results in term relationship information being lost and opportunities for enhanced retrieval routines being missed. The technical difficulties involved in doing better, i.e. slow data transmission etc., are gradually being solved especially through the advent of standalone micro systems such as CD‐ROM. What might a better subject search interface look like?

I AM EARLY on parade this month, dear readers, because during the first week in March, when I should have constructed this column, I had a series of important meetings in a village called Alpbach to execute business contracts with ski‐instructors and hoteliers and the like. You people who work in the public domain don't realise the heavy pressures we businessmen have to face.

A major international conference “Information Technology and the Research Process” sponsored by BLRDD, the University of Pittsburgh and the Computer Board for Universities and Research Councils took place in mid‐July at Cranfield Institute of Technology, UK. Delegates from all over the world gathered to hear how information technology (IT) is transforming the traditional research process. Twenty speakers provided their individual views on how IT is opening up types of analysis hitherto impossible, providing alternative methods of investigation and supporting new ways of communicating the results of research. The conduct of research in all disciplines including science, technology and the humanities and how IT enhances the outcome was debated during the lively meeting of minds at Cranfield. The proceedings are to be published this winter.